Putting Abandoned Quebec Churches to Good Use

The Days When The Church Ruled

This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window. Yet I was told that you were going to build one more. I said the scheme is good, but where are you going to find room? They said, we will build it on top of another church and use an elevator. This shows that the gift of lying is not yet dead in the land.

- Mark Twain (Montreal 1881)

Mark Twain used this observation as a bit of levity in his speech at a banquet held in his honour at the Windsor Hotel here in Montreal (New York Times, December 10, 1881). As usual he was very right. Montreal has always been known as the City of Spires or the City of Saints.

Montreal has an estimated 700 churches and convents ranging from tiny churches to full-scale cathedrals and basilicas. Some of them are truly awe-inspiring in their beauty. There is an estimated 2,000 religious buildings across the province. Now there are few that are not in immediate risk of being closed down.